Van Wyck Boulevard

[Rosalyn Pomposo]

Subwayservice first reached Jamaica in 1918. Previously, Jamaica had only been served by the Long Island Railroad (LIRR) and, later, streetcars. There had been a hybrid elevated-streetrunning service which allowed Brooklyn Rapid Transit (BRT) riders a one-seat-ride from the East River ferry to Cypress Hills via the Broadway El. Then, using a ramp, trains would continue on to 168th St along Jamaica Ave. Traffic slowed down the trains so much that this practice was cancelled, to be replaced with an extension of the elevated line in 1918. The BRT Broadway Line thus became the Jamaica Line.

With the introduction of subway service directly to Manhattan, the former farms of Queens began to be subdivided into bedroom communities. The Jamaica Line served an existing market of mostly bedroom communities flanking the LIRR Atlantic Branch. Thanks to the success of the new IRT/BRT Astoria and Corona Lines (which is how the 7 train was known as before its extension to Flushing), areas north of the glacial moraine were developing as well.

Queens, having never been an incorporated city, but rather a collection of towns, never planned its growth in the same way that New York and Brooklyn had. In 1898, Long Island City and the towns of Newtown, Flushing, Jamaica, and the Rockaways (which were part of the town of Hempstead) voted to join the City of Greater New York. Hempstead and Oyster Bay elected to stay separate, and the county of Nassau was created for them. Queens has its famous overly compicated numbered street system due in part to the original town having the same street names in completely different places.

The selling point for this union was infrastructure. Long Island had a small and finite aquifer system, but New York City, with its Croton Aqueduct system, had seemingly limitless water. New York could also build roads, bridges, and after 1904, subways to link the far-flung towns together with the growing city. In 1901, the Queensboro Bridge became the first grand connection between the boroughs, followed by the city laying down new streets and highways.

Growth brought more growth. The Dual Contracts had brought new subway lines into the borough, and the city began planning a new grand boulevard that would connect New York, via the new Queensboro Bridge, to Jamaica. This highway was envisioned as a compliment to the Grand Boulevard and Concourse, built in the Bronx between 1894 and 1907. The aptly named Queens Boulevard was designed with similar features: center through-lanes, flanked by local service roads which were separated by landscaped medians. Streetcars, which would use an underground terminal on the Manhattan side of the Queensboro Bridge, would run along the medians.

The first section, from Van Dam St to 48th St in Sunnyside, was built as part of the new Corona Line. Even today, this section of the subway is a great example of the value city builders put on new infrastructure. The concrete viaduct running down the median of Queens Blvd is an icon of both the borough and city in general.

Building Queens Blvd did not happen overnight. Much of the route was cobbled together out of existing roads, often two lane dirt roads which, only recently, had been traversed only by farmers bringing their stock to the city, pulled by horses. By the time Queens had been connected to the city, the car was quickly making its presence known.

The early focus for the IND was on 8th Ave and the Crosstown Line running through Greenpoint, Williamsburg, Bed-Stuy, Fort Greene, and downtown Brooklyn. The initial concept was for this line to loop through Manhattan via the 8th Ave Line, and later the 6th Ave Line (a dual avenue trunk line had also been proposed back in 1912, and the IND finally put it into the design in 1925). The new East River tunnel between 53rd St and Long Island City was originally proposed to be 4-tracks wide, with 2-tracks continuing deeper into Queens, and 2-tracks looping through Brooklyn. The Crosstown Line would also branch into Queens, connecting Brooklyn and Queens.

By 1925, the city had decided on the route for most of the new Queens line. From Long Island City, the 4-track line would run up Jackson Ave to Northern Blvd. At Steinway St, the local tracks would diverge: the local tracks were to run up Steinway St and turn east under Broadway while the express tracks were to continue along Northern Blvd until Broadway where both would link up again. From here, Broadway would be extended through Woodside to Newtown. At 69th St, the local tracks would diverge once again, turning south under 69th St, while the express tracks would continue east under Broadway. The local tracks would turn east at Queens Blvd. Both lines would meet up again where Broadway curves south and meets Queens Blvd at Grand Ave. The 4-tracks would continue heading east until they reached Union Turnpike, at which point the lines would split for the final time. The local tracks would turn off of Queens Blvd and run along Kew Gardens Road, skirting the southwestern border of the Maple Grove Cemetery, until it reached Hillside Ave, where it would turn northeast and run along Hillside Ave until 178th St. The express tracks would continue along Queens Blvd until Van Wyck Blvd, at which point they would cut through private property under the neighborhood of Briarwood, making a direct line to Sutphin Blvd, running south to Archer Ave and the LIRR station at Jamaica.

In Brooklyn, the IND planned to build a line south to Coney Island by recapturing the BMT Culver Line which had been build during the Dual Contracts. When the Fulton Line was added to the mix, the added service required for the new lines meant that space for the Crosstown Line to enter Manhattan had to be sacrificed. The 53rd St Tunnel was reduced from 4-tracks to 2-tracks, eliminating the ability for the Crosstown Line to directly reach Manhattan. Service on both the South Brooklyn (today, the F/G) and Queens Blvd Lines would be limited so that only the express tracks being able to cross into Manhattan.

When New York City had been confined to Manhattan Island proper, all elevated lines had terminated at the tip of Lower Manhattan. When the subways were built with the new local-express concept, they were designed so that the local tracks would continue to terminate in Lower Manhattan, while the express trains crossed into the outer boroughs. This pattern had been similar for Brooklyn elevated trains, with some terminating at the banks of the East River, and some crossing over the new bridges as they went up.

The IND figured this could work for their subways as well. By connecting the South Brooklyn local tracks and the Queens Blvd local tracks directly to the Crosstown Line, the IND could kill two birds with one stone. Express trains on both lines would run into Manhattan, but the locals would stay between Brooklyn and Queens.

As planning progressed, the Winfield diversion along 69th St was cut. The odd route had been chosen due as a way to serve already developed areas, so that ridership would be higher. But the reality of building two lines instead of one meant it would also cost more. Extending Broadway through Elmhurst and compensating landowners drove the cost of construction up, so the tunnels were simplified along one route.

The initial design of Queens Blvd was closer to that of Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn. By the time the IND began digging the Queens Blvd Line in 1927, the art of highway building had evolved to include large over and underpasses for major roads to separate through traffic from local traffic. Queens Blvd, being built with center through-lanes and outer local-lanes, would take advantage of this new design by lowering the center lanes as the road passed the newly built Woodhaven Blvd and Horace Harding Blvd, both of which were new arterial highways knitting the borough together. The Queens Blvd tunnels were built with these underpasses in mind; The 4-track subway runs under the center lanes of the road, and are far enough below ground that these lanes could be lowered if need be.

Plans evolved and were finalized as construction began. In Kew Gardens, the two branch split was redesigned so that the 4-track trunk line continued along Queens Blvd only, turning south at Van Wyck Blvd, before turning east at Hillside Ave. When the tunnel turned east, two tracks would branch off and turn south, as per the original plan. But instead of using Sutphin Blvd, the branch would run south along Van Wyck Blvd.

The short spur along Van Wyck Blvd to Atlantic Ave had always been included as part of the initial IND system. As construction went on, local civic groups began asking the city for new lines. This lead the IND to release an expansion plan to build support for new lines. As part of their IND Second System from 1929, the city proposed extending the Van Wyck Line further south to Rockaway Blvd. This gave fuel to supporters of the line, and advocates like Coyle soon began pressing the city build not just the short spur to 94th, but move forward on the entire line south to Rockaway Blvd.

It seems that, like so many of the expansion plans from the time, the Van Wyck Line was built only on wishful. As the Depression went on, the IND struggled to complete what it had started and looked for ways to save money. The original Van Wyck Line was to include a single station at Jamaica Ave, with tail tracks to Atlantic Ave. The station and tracks were cut, leaving only a partially built junction where the main Queens Blvd Line makes a turn east under Hillside Ave. Claiming that the line would be built as part of the next phase was simply a way of creating support for the next time the city had to ask for more money.

The IND was feeling pressure from other civic groups on the north side of Jamaica as well. The Hillside Ave Line had been planned to run to 178th St. The commercial area of downtown Jamaica was, at the time, centered between Parsons Blvd and 168th St. The original LIRR Jamaica station had been located at what is today Union Hall St, at the center of this area. Running the IND along Hillside Ave to 178th St meant that they could capture the northern half of downtown traffic, while also giving themselves a wider highway under which to build. Jamaica Ave is the only other fully East-West road in the area and already had an elevated train running over it.

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